Beijing, China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of ultra-thin steel, engineer 
2. Various of steel production line, engineer
3. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Hu Na, engineer, Shougang Jingtang Steel United Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. (starting with shot 2/ending with shot 4): 
"Although it's thin, it has excellent toughness and feels like paper, and we can easily bend it and repeatly fold it. Now, let's fold it into a 'paper plane', just like the ones we used to make as kids. A paper plane made of steel."
4. Various of Hu folding steel into metal paper airplane
5. Various of steel factory, workers 
6. Various robotic arm operating 
7. Various of steel production line 
8. Various of cans on production line 
9. Various of steel samples for different usages   

China's steel industry has achieved intensive breakthroughs in high-end precision materials since the beginning of this year, with a batch of advanced specialty steels empowering frontier industries including electronics, new energy and high-end equipment.

In the mobile communication era of 4G, the thickness required for an ultra-thin low-carbon steel foil is 0.12 mm to enable convenient and speedy signal transmission. 

Such a demanding requirement is tightened to a mere 0.10 mm in today's 5G new era, which means more complicated techniques for its manufacturers. 

For a long time, the rolling methods relied heavily on foreign enterprises. However, Shougang Group teamed up with the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) in 2013 to conduct scientific research and development on the continuous rolling process of "5G steel," a nickname of the ultra-thin low-carbon steel foil. 

The "5G steel" that independently developed by China - as thin as 0.07 mm - has entered mass production and been widely used for 5G base station signal receivers, signal transmission filters, and integrated circuit boards, and new energy battery connection pieces.

"Although it's thin, it has excellent toughness and feels like paper, and we can easily bend it and repeatedly fold it," said Hu Na, an engineer at Shougang Jingtang Steel United Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. She folded the steel into a classic "paper plane" to show its flexibility.  

This year, China has been using specialty steels to empower the development of new quality productive forces. 

For instance, in industrial sector, China has continued to push performance limits of silicon steel -- an iron-silicon alloy used primarily in electrical applications due to its good magnetic properties, with 0.1-millimeter-grade non-oriented electrical steel achieving global top-tier status in electrical steel iron loss indicators.     

The material now is widely used in drive motors for new energy vehicles and joint motors for humanoid robots. 

The breakthroughs came as China's steel industry continues to shift toward higher value-added products, with the manufacturing sector's share of steel consumption surpassing that of the construction sector for the first time in 2025.